If your skatepark advocacy group is a non-profit organization your donors will benefit from their donations being tax-exempt. While you may not be required to produce a receipt for every donation you receive, it’s both wise and polite to do so for any donation over $50.

If you are not a non-profit organization, you may still receive donations. Those donations will not be tax-deductible by the donor. Your letter will omit any indication that you are a non-profit organization.

The receipt may be written on paper or an electronic document (or email). You may supply the minimum amount of information required to indicate the nature of the donation for tax purposes but it is advised that you take the opportunity to include a message that reinforces the mission that they’ve donated to.

Your letter should include the name of your organization and its address, the fact that you are a 501c3 non-profit organization, and your tax ID number.

The narrative portion of the letter should be respectful and support the key points of your advocacy campaign. Below is a sample letter, interpreted from the letter sent by the Tony Hawk Foundation to its donors, that you may use or interpret as you see fit. Naturally, text that is in gray should be appropriately changed.

(Date) (Donor Name) (Donor Address)

Dear (donor name),

On behalf of the (Skatepark Association) I want to thank you for your generous support of the (Skatepark Association). We received your donation of $(amount) on (date of receipt). This donation has made you a part of a group working toward a vision of bringing a public skatepark to our community’s youth. Thanks to you the (Skatepark Association) is closer to our goal of $(fundraising goal).

Our community has an estimated (amount) skateboarders, most of whom are under 18 years old, and more are picking up this athletic form of recreation every day. Despite this phenomenal growth, our community lacks sufficient facilities to accommodate this growth. By building our new skatepark we are providing our youth a safe, legal place skate.

The (Skatepark Association) was established to help raise awareness about the importance of these facilities, to advance the process of creating a new facility for our community’s youth, and to help foster a sense of belonging among those youth, and to foster a sense of empowerment among those whom have been relegated to recreating in illegal and unsafe places for far too long. We feel the ongoing, positive results of this endeavor will benefit our community for years to come.

We are sincerely grateful for your support. Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you have any further questions, (phone) or (email).

Respectfully,

(your signature)

(your name) (your title) (Skatepark Association)

No goods or services were received for this donation. The (Skatepark Association) is a tax-exempt charity under the IRS code section 501c3, tax ID# (your tax ID).